The funeral of Waldwick Police Officer Christopher Goodell on Tuesday ended a tragic 10 days for North Jersey police — days marked not only by profound sadness, but by an unprecedented outpouring of support from the public and from law enforcement locally, statewide and nationally.

Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago, 23, was buried Friday after being shot and killed outside a drugstore while responding to an armed robbery call. Goodell, 32, a former Marine and Waldwick High School graduate, was killed when his police cruiser was hit by a truck on Route 17 while he was conducting radar surveillance.

Goodell’s passing was marked by a somber ceremony attended by an estimated 3,500 people at St. Luke’s Church in Ho-Ho-Kus.

“Officer Goodell, your end of watch is July 17, 2014,” a Waldwick sergeant said over a loud speaker Tuesday during a graveside final call for the patrolman.

“You’re clear to respond and to be with your Lord,” Bergen County Police Communications Supervisor Garth Brown said, acting as dispatcher during the call. “For your kindness and dedication to the citizens of Waldwick, you will live in our hearts forever. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Watch over us until we are together again.”

The death of Goodell has been particularly jarring for the tight-knit community not only because of his engagement last month to marry Waldwick resident Jillian Voss, but because of his well-known outgoing and helpful nature.

At the funeral Mass, Goodell’s sister Nicole Priestner was the only family member to speak.

“Please bear with me,” she said as the Mass opened, her hands shaking as she choked back sobs. “Christopher, you were my little brother, but there wasn’t anything little about you.”

Priestner remembered “phone calls every day asking advice” and “seeing you running by.” Goodell was an avid runner and being in shape was important to him, friends and family have said.

As she finished her short remarks, a distraught Priestner embraced officers standing behind her.

About 600 to 700 people filled the church and thousands more watched and listened to the service on a 25-foot screen and speakers set up in the parking lot between the church and St. Luke’s School.

Before the funeral began, the screen outside the church displayed a slideshow of photos set to music: Goodell as a child riding his bike, as a high school student dancing with friends, as a young man posing alongside family and as an officer accepting an award in uniform.

“When I read about it in the papers, everything he did, being in the Marines, what he did in the town, Mothers Against Drunk Driving,” said Colleen McCrudden, a 40-year resident of Waldwick who watched from across the street. “He was a very community-minded young man and I just came out to honor him and his life. … I pray for his family.”

The tribute to Goodell was replete with the pageantry and honor befitting the local officer.

Honor guards held flags, the Bergen County Pipe and Drum Band played, hundreds of officers gave salute, and officials including Governor Christie and Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli stood alongside family members on the steps of the Roman Catholic church. Christie also attended Santiago’s funeral, which had more than 1,000 people in attendance and more lining the streets of Jersey City for the funeral procession.

Don and Linda Doraski, who have lived in Waldwick for about 35 years, watched the church service from across the street.

“My kids went to school with him,” Don Doraski said. “He was one of the good guys. It’s that simple. Just being here is a responsibility.”

Hundreds of officers from municipal, county and state police agencies lined North Franklin Turnpike standing at attention in the hot sun as the family arrived in four black limousines. Among the departments represented were Jersey City, Suffolk County, N.Y., Hillside, Montclair, Newark, Hackensack, Emerson, Paterson, Essex County, Wayne, Edgewater, Fort Lee and Paramus. Federal officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Reserve were also in attendance.

“We have to respect and honor his death,” said New Milford Detective Lt. Frank Ramaci. “It actually makes you feel good because it shows the unity and the brotherhood that has always been here but sometimes you don’t see it until things, unfortunately, happen like this.”

“They go out in the morning and you don’t know if they’ll come back,” said Anne O’Shea, of Waldwick, whose son, an NYPD officer, knew Goodell.

Mourners arrived early for the 11 a.m. Mass, with civilians in line wrapping around the building and spreading out onto the north lawn. Four Marines stood at attention on the church steps, while police officers assembled in every open space surrounding the church. They stood silently in neat lines in the near-90 degree weather, at attention, waiting for the family to arrive.

The officers saluted the family as they entered the church then retreated to the parking lot to view the service. Many removed their hats, finally at ease, to wipe sweat from their foreheads.

“So many are dependent on them for life and safety,” the Rev. James Weiner, the church’s pastor, said in a policeman’s prayer during the 90-minute service. “So many thousands are grateful for their presence.”

The state Emergency Medical Services task force and Ridgewood Special Operations ran a cooling station and medical tent. Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus and Englewood ambulances and EMTs were also on scene.

Water bottles were piled underneath trees, placed at the feet of officers standing at attention and wedged into back pockets of onlookers.

Mark Richards, deputy EMS Coordinator for Bergen County OEM, said medical personnel treated 18 to 20 people for heat exhaustion. “The majority were uniformed. A couple were civilians,” he said, adding no one wastaken to the hospital.

“We just cooled them down, gave them water.”

As the Mass came to a close, the pipes and drums band played “Amazing Grace,” then led six Marines, 20 clergy members and hundreds of mourners to the cemetery.

The flag-draped casket was lifted out of St. Luke’s by Waldwick officers and placed onto a trolley. The family exited the church holding hands and grasping tissues. The procession traveled down the church driveway, past hundreds of saluting officers and under a 20-foot American flag to the burial site in the church’s cemetery.

At the burial, the band played “America the Beautiful.” After a 21-gun salute and a New Jersey State Police helicopter flyover, Waldwick broadcast the final call and Goodell was laid to rest.

Sal Kesilyas walked to the end of his street to view yet another funeral for a young hero.

“It’s like déjà vu,” he said, referring to the death of Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph D’Augustine of Waldwick two years ago in Afghanistan.

“It’s hard when you live nearby to keep yourself emotionally out if it,” Kesilyas said. “It’s bad because you don’t want to see it happen to anybody. But it’s good when you see the sacrifices people make for us. And when you see people come from all over to celebrate his [life]. It’s amazing. He deserves it.”